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Yet, despite this impressive dominion, Amazon, over the past half-decade, has performed with a curious lack of alacrity, lagging, as it were, behind the broader market’s exuberant gallop. A mere 44% ascent in share price, a figure that, while respectable in isolation, pales in comparison to the S&P 500’s 79% and the Nasdaq Composite’s 73%. A peculiar deceleration for a company so often heralded as the vanguard of progress. One might almost suspect a deliberate, if subtle, act of contrarianism.

The question, then, is not whether this fintech enterprise can flourish, but whether it will merely…persist. A subtle distinction, perhaps, but one that often separates the genuinely promising from the merely…adequate.

The situation is paradoxical. Some companies involved in AI – those providing the necessary hardware, for instance – are not unreasonably priced. They trade at multiples comparable to other established technology firms. However, certain companies focused on applying AI – particularly those not yet accessible to public investment – command valuations that defy logic. This disparity is crucial. It suggests that the market is not irrationally exuberant across the board, but selectively so.

But there’s a little pocket of… not exactly joy, but certainly relative prosperity. Every stock in the S&P 500 Semiconductor Equipment & Materials group is up double digits. Four of them are up over 25% since January 1st. These aren’t the companies making the shiny new chips everyone talks about. They make the machines that make the chips. A bit further removed from the glamour, but that’s where the steady money is. Or, at least, it is right now.

The stakes, you see, are not merely financial. This is a battle for the very soul of computation, a contest of silicon and algorithms. Others are attempting to build alternatives, to challenge Nvidia’s dominance, but it is like asking a babushka to outrun a locomotive. They may puff and strain, but the outcome is… predictable. And yet, these shrewd investors persist. Why?

The following are not recommendations, precisely. Rather, they are observations. Accounts of entities that, through a series of almost accidental alignments, find themselves positioned to benefit from this relentless march of the algorithm. Their success is not guaranteed, naturally. Nothing is. But their obscurity offers a… degree of insulation. A temporary reprieve from the scrutiny of the market.

IonQ, bless its ambition, actually managed to outpace the S&P 500 – a mere 17% gain, but one mustn’t be greedy. Rigetti Computing, with a positively exuberant 75% leap, was clearly having a good time. And D-Wave Quantum? Well, quadrupling in value is simply showing off. Quantum Computing, however – the singular entity – lagged behind. A mere 5% return. Rather tiresome, really.